Sleeping

One day I crept into the babies rooms and took pictures of them sleeping.  I love these pictures.  

Here's Isak:

Isak is my little sleeper.  He takes really good naps.  He plays hard when he is awake and goes down easily for naps.  He used to cry and cry and it took forever to get him to go to sleep.  But now we sing a song, lay him down wide awake and he does the rest.

Isak will usually take 2 to 2 and a half hour naps.

Isak has the cutest little snore.  :)

Oh, sweet Isak.

Oh, sweet Kira.  Aren't all babies sweet though when they are sleeping??

So peaceful.

Kira has always been good at putting herself to sleep.  She's just a little angel.

She likes to sleep vertically in the crib just like when she was a newborn and sharing with Isak.

Kira is my short napper...1 hour to an hour and a half.  She rarely sleeps more than that and sometimes she sleeps less.

Neither of them sleep with a blanket or toy.  I am too paranoid about SIDS to leave anything in the crib.

I hope they continue to be good sleepers.  I pray for it every night. :)

Pictures taken in July 2013.  8 months old.

8 Months

July 11, 2013 the babies turned 8 months old.  Here's a few pictures and notes that I wrote about them when they turned 8 months:

Kira is still my smiler as you can see from the pictures:

I love this picture even though it is a bit blurry.  It shows a cute side of her personality.

Kira has the cutest crawl/scoot.  It's sort of an army crawl.  She gets around and is super happy to be mobile.  She will sit for a while, but at 8 months she can't get into a sitting position yet.  

Kira likes to make loud growling screams.  When she does them it makes Isak cry.  It's hilarious to see a happy screeching Kira making Isak cry.  For some reason he doesn't like that noise.

Kira loves to dance, especially with dad and right before bath time.  Isak and I watch and listen as Dad sings some rhythm song and moves Kira around.  Isak will even clap sometimes.

She still has 2 teeth and likes to suck her lip.  We haven't found a food she likes yet, although we did give her a little ice cream and she liked that of course.

This was the first picture I took of Isak...oh dear.

But he cooperated eventually...look at this happy, red headed boy!

Isak is super mobile.  He crawls all over the place and finds things to get into.  He is becoming an expert at pulling himself into a standing position.  He even takes a few steps as he holds onto the couch.

He claps and it melts my heart every time.

He crawls to me or Nels and then sits and waits to be picked up. Sometimes he cries--most o f the time he cries--if we don't pick him up right away.

He loves to talk and says, da da, na, na, de, de, ne, ne.  He likes to be wherever we are.  If we're in the kitchen or sitting at the table that's where he wants to be.

He loves banana baby food, and then apple.  We're getting there with food.  One time at Red Robin we gave him a lemon and he actually liked it.  He sucked on it for at least 5 minutes!

He's a snuggler and loves to sit on laps.

He has 4 teeth total.  I love this picture..."Are you almost done mom??  It's hard to be good."

"I'm out of here!"

This is the best one of them together.

Oh baby girl!  She's so funny.

This is the best I could get with Isak laying down.

They both sleep about 10 hours at night 8 pm to 6 am. Two naps and sometimes a 30 minute evening nap.    

"Ready, 1, 2, 3...Roll"

And that's the end of the 8 month photo shoot!

A Non Baby Post

What??  No pictures of the babies.  Crazy huh?!!!  

Nels and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary June 21.  The moving truck delivered our stuff June 19...so we basically spent our anniversary unpacking and recovering from the move.  We did venture out to Outback Steakhouse and I thoroughly enjoyed the filet mignon.  Nels bought me 2 dozen roses and lots of daisies.  Good thing I found my vases.  They were beautiful flowers and lasted a long time.  We are still happily married and looking forward to...well, eternity.  :)  

I've tried a couple recipes since we moved. The first one was Tuna Couscous.  When I asked Nels to rate this meal 1 to 10...10 being the best.  He gave it a 3.  And it deserved it.  I actually liked the couscous, but the tuna and veggie combo wasn't that great.  Plus, it was bland.

Greek Chicken Pita Sandwiches
These were delicious and smelled so good cooking in the crock pot.  There is a dash of cinnamon that makes it smell warm and cozy.  Both recipes are on pinterest.

Steak by Nels
Mmmmm steak.  Restaurants are becoming more difficult to go to.  Especially since the last time we went Isak spilled a full glass of water onto Nels's lap.  :)  So we bought nice steaks and ate at home.

When I am not taking care of babies or taking pictures of them...I am...

Reading.  I'm reading Thomas S. Monson's biography.  I am about 300 pages into it.  I'm learning about his time in East Germany behind the Iron Curtain.  Wow.  Amazing stories.  I'm reading youth fiction books. Love those quick escape reads.

Exercising.  When Nels is home I go running outside.  When Nels is traveling, I work out with my dear friend Jillian Michaels.  30 day Shred, oh yeah!  My sister got me an awesome Kickboxing DVD that's hard and fun.  I also like yoga and pilates.  Exercising helps me to stay happy.

Blogging.  Always trying to catch up.

Making Lists...haha.  I love to make lists, even though I don't get those things done.

Organizing the house.  We are all unpacked.  Now I just have clutter piles that I am trying to eliminate.  Eventually, I want to start projects to decorate our house.  I've never really decorated our dwelling places before, but I really want to make our house a home.

That's about all.  :)  Nothing too exciting...maybe next year I'll take up a new hobby.

At the Park

We walked our double stroller to the park one day.  Here's a few pictures:

Isak was probably thinking, "Why did my parents put me in the swing backwards??"

We're still learning too. :)  

Love Kira's hat.

Kira is happy, even if she is sitting in the swing the wrong way.

"Aw, they finally figured it out."  Love Isak's little boy grin!

I love this face too!

And this one.

Dad and Kira went down the slide.

And then I went down the slide with Isak.  I think I was more scared than Isak. haha.

Fun times.
Pictures taken in June or July 2013

All Together Now

The babies love to be with each other.  They follow each other around...and now steal each other's toys.  I love to watch them interact.  Here's a few pictures:

I love Kira's big old smile!

Isak raising his arms up.

Isak has a big smile in this one.  If one is in the jumper the other one stays right by them.

They both love books.

One day they discovered the washing machine. They sat and watched it for a good fifteen minutes.

Looking at books and playing with toys.

I often find them both at the sliding glass door just looking out the window.

They love to be wherever I am too.  So if I'm in the kitchen they crawl to the kitchen and hang out.  They are so funny and I just love to watch them learn and grow.